Hamilton completes crucial test ahead of Ferrari F1 debut

Lewis Hamilton continued his preparations for his first full season at Ferrari with another test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday.

The outing commenced on Tuesday with Hamilton, as well as team-mate Charles Leclerc, in attendance to help Pirelli collect crucial data.

Ferrari was joined at the test by McLaren, with Oscar Piastri taking over driving duties from Lando Norris on the second and final day of running.

As was the case on Tuesday, Hamilton and Leclerc shared the car across the day which offered Hamilton more time to gel with his team ahead of his maiden season in red.

Hamilton's second day of testing saw him complete 74 tours of the circuit - exactly the same figure as team-mate Leclerc.

The best lap times stood at 1:14.971 for Leclerc and 1:16.759 for Hamilton, however Pirelli outlined “they have no real significance given the different work programmes carried out”.

Piastri clocked 152 laps during the day, with his best time sitting at 1:15.815.

Pirelli's next F1 test will take place at the Jerez Circuit next week on Thursday and Friday.

Alpine will be present on both days, with McLaren and Mercedes will do one day each.

“It was a very useful session, particularly when it came to providing a comparison between the various different constructions for next season, as well as experimenting with some compounds from the harder end of the range,”  Pirelli Motorsport Director Mario Isola said of the Barcelona test. 

“The Barcelona circuit is known as one of the most demanding for the tyres in terms of the energy exerted and degradation, therefore the information we have gathered over these two busy days will be very important for the future development of this generation of tyres. 

“It’s a really demanding start to the year with four test sessions even before the season begins and I want to thank all the teams that are working with us, because we know how busy they are at the moment.”